Le Tour - Day 2

British sprint king Mark Cavendish served it up to the favourites and underlined his green jersey ambitions with a comprehensive victory in the 187km second stage. Cavendish, with significant support from his Columbia team members, began his sprint to the line early but maintained his speed and held off all challenges to raise his arms at the finish line.

Wearing a top that made him look like he has Peter Andre's abs (back when he could sort of sing) Cavendish made the top look justified and lived up to his own expectations of finishing stages strongly.

In last year's Tour, Cavendish won 4 stages before pulling out to concentrate on the Olympics in Beijing. After only one stage of this year's Tour, Cavendish looks like he is back on track faster than the Coyote chasing the Road Runner.

Last nights results were as follows:

1. Mark Cavendish (GB/Team Columbia) 4 hours 30 minutes 2 seconds
2. Tyler Farrar (USA/Garmin-Slipstream) same time
3. Romain Feillu (Fra/Agritubel) "
4. Thor Hushovd, (Nor/Cervelo) "
5. Yukiya Arashiro (Jap/Bouygues Telecom) "

Overall Standings:

1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi/Saxobank) 4 hours 49 minutes 34 seconds
2. Alberto Contador (Spa/Astana) + 18 secs
3. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) +19 secs
4. Andreas Kloden (Ger/Astana) +22 secs
5. Cadel Evans (Aus/Silence) +23 secs

http://www.letour.fr/indexus.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/cycling/article6643189.ece